11 Popular Onboarding Mistakes: What They Are And How To Avoid Them

It has been found that up to 69 percent of new hires who are a part of a substantial onboarding experience will stay a minimum of three years with their new company than those who were not appropriately onboarded. Proper onboarding helps new employees immediately feel valued, supported, and, most importantly, engaged. These are all critical factors that make the best use of employee productivity and retention.

All new hires will eagerly look for clues from the start regarding their employer. Minor actions and interactions will be interpreted and judged, sometimes logically or sometimes too hastily. Those first impressions can go either way, good or bad, and most often, they are the hardest ones to shake. Don’t let this time go to waste by not implementing a strong onboarding foundation.

Do you recognize any of the following common yet potentially destructive onboarding mistakes?

1. Failing to provide a clean and adequately set up workstation is ready on the first day
2. Cramming hours of information into half a day of orientation
3. Lack of attention to company cultural adaptation
4. Keeping the new hire in the dark from the start
5. Constantly comparing the new hire to the predecessor in the same role
6. You are failing to address the needs and differences of varied generational age groups
7. A new hire’s first day begins while their manager is absent
8. You are relying solely on org charts to explain workflow or other lines of communication
9. From the start, assuming that new hires are not immediately productive
10. The onboarding program appears and is disorganized
11. Onboarding is officially used as a “sink or swim approach” to employee retention

A few times in the past, I was the new hire, and I can confirm; I had experienced all the above at one point or another, often all together in one experience when joining a new organization. This brings me to my point; these common mistakes have contributed to and supported my decision to leave companies. The first impression is critical as to whether the person has made the right decision in the selection process or feeling regrets and confusion within the first three months or less, thinking how quickly they can find the door to the nearest exit.

Have you ever been in that situation? Those who have, I am sure they can relate. It’s an awful experience, one that at times hard to recover from; significantly harder to explain to recruiters during interviews when you are trying to look elsewhere!

There are many reasons why people leave a new job quickly; some are:

• No training was provided.
• Underappreciated
• Different work than what was expected.
• Issues with management
• Overwhelming workload
• Hard to schedule time off.
• Toxic work environment
• Cultural fit
• Bullying & sexual harassment etc.
• Unclear roles and responsibility (the role is too broad, and reporting structure is unclear)

I believe creating a five-phase onboarding plan that will help provide more structure, get the new hire to become productive quickly, perform better, and stay engaged at a high level is a good starting point. This involved going beyond HR reps presenting the information. By getting direct supervisors involved in onboarding, new hires take the process much more seriously.

So, what does the five-phase plan look like:

• Pre-arrival: set the stage by preparing a workspace, office supplies, and technology setup, communicating with the team and the new hire, ensuring all the required documents are being completed for payroll, security access to the building, and parking.
• First day: schedule an office tour, introduce the new hire to the team and make them feel welcome by inviting them to lunch, as well as explaining what they can expect in the days ahead.
• Second day: get the new hire up to speed on the day-to-day operation, make introductions, and schedule training.
• First week: schedule their meet & greet meetings, review workplace policy, and make time to get to know their professional likes and dislikes, give them their first assignment, and set expectations.
• First month: Encourage success, and foster growth by giving regular feedback and setting clear goals and expectations.

 

Ten Ways to Help Avoid These Common Mistakes

1. Don’t wait until your new hire arrives to set up meetings and onboarding.
2. To make the “paperwork” start quicker, send it in advance, or send a link to an online portal. Don’t overwhelm a new hire with a single-day orientation that overloads them with information.
3. Speed up the learning process by helping new hires form connections. Assign a “work-buddy” from day one and encourage other staff members to join a new employee for lunch. Make a list of about five to ten contacts that are key to the newbie’s role. Ask that each one-touch base with the new hire to share perspectives or to offer encouragement.
4. Don’t forget the importance of being available to give them a chance to ask questions and feel confident they have your support.
5. Rather than bringing up the previous employee often, allow the new hire to shine on their own as the skillset you hired them for should put any unhealthy comparisons to the side. The new hire needs to bring their own style in keeping with strong productivity.
6. Don’t treat the new hire’s start date as an ordinary day. Welcome them with swag and an enthusiastic attitude to make them feel like a part of the team.
7. Knowing how to onboard a variety of age groups is essential. For example, Gen X leans more toward valuing independence and is happy with metrics and priorities to give them quick comprehension of the roles’ expectations. On the other hand, Millennial’s trend toward feeling a sense of community and what the corporate culture is like right away. For this age group, teamwork and group activity will help them feel better connected.
8. There is a time and place for diagrams to be shown to new hires. It should never be used as the sole method of passing information to them. Give them a real sense of how or where to turn for help to problem-solve or seek clarity. New hires who “know where to go” accomplish things much faster and with greater efficiency.
9. It’s a disappointing feeling to begin your new role on the same day that your manager is not around to offer support and a warm welcome. When new hires’ expectations are not met on the first day, it is extremely hard to get over that “bait and switch” feeling that the organization may be giving you. It is simply disheartening and will often make a new hire feel like an unproductive burden.
10. Don’t be ambiguous about the new hire’s role, responsibilities, and expectations. Ensure these are written down, communicated verbally, and understood by the new hire.
11. Promoting an attitude that only long-term employees are valuable to the company can really kill the morale of new hires. The best way to avoid this is to get them working right away. Put them on real teams solving real problems. This will promote engagement and inclusion much faster, not to mention an increase in active learning that stacks of documents wouldn’t give them in the same amount of time.

In summary

Onboarding doesn’t have to be complicated, but you need to have a plan when welcoming new employees, getting them up to speed, and helping them become fully engaged—the result, of course, is better performance and stronger retention.

Left alone, it is an incredibly daunting experience for new hires to navigate their workplace unsupported. Indeed, there will be a few who will succeed without formal onboarding, but why make that assumption when the odds are there for you to bring them into the fold with an organized and structured onboarding program. Would you not want to ultimately send the message to new hires that the organization cares?